Not Necessarily Duplicitous
by Nietzsche's Itch
Summary: Tomoki displays his maturity, surprising Yutaka. Family fic


Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon

Summary: Tomoki displays his maturity, surprising Yutaka

Written for Immortal Fallen Radiance

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Yutaka would freely admit to being largely ignorant of how his brother spent his time other than at mealtimes, which was the only time he spent in the same room as him if he could possibly help it.

Tomoki was an annoying child at the best of times, constantly demanding attention and praise and seemingly unable to entertain himself alone for one minute. He was exceptionally selfish even for a young child, due to the spoiling he had received since the day he was born. When Yutaka had been born, the company their father worked at had been just starting out, and money had been tight from what he understood. When Tomoki had come along some years later, they had the funds to care for an unexpected arrival and give him all the things they hadn't been able to give Yutaka.

He was a cute baby, who became a restless toddler, then evolved into a bratty child who couldn't grasp the concept that the sun, the earth and the moon did not revolve around him and him alone.

Their parents were no help, and Yutaka reflected that if they'd had the money to spoil him in a similar manner, he likely wouldn't have turned out any differently. This wasn't much consolation to him when he could find nothing to like about his spoilt younger sibling.

Except he'd been oddly selfless lately, and Yutaka was suspicious.

He had started helping to clear the table without being prompted, even when he'd been told to go off and play. He had started aiming for the laundry basket when he threw his dirty clothes down and most amazingly, he had made the best burgers Yutaka had ever tasted the other day on his own. And they were made on his own, Yutaka had spied on him to make sure.

And what confused him no end was why Tomoki would be doing any of this if there wasn't something in it for him. So Yutaka had begun to watch him, and had concluded nothing except he had attained five new friends, whom he was seemingly rather close to, and who in turn didn't seem to be tolerating him but genuinely like him and include him as part of the group. He couldn't understand this. Tomoki had been mentioning them quite a lot lately, and he had been surprised to note that he had talked about things to do with their lives that didn't include Tomoki at all, and that he had not gained from. He was suddenly interested in people besides himself.

He went to the Shibuya one day, a brat by all accounts and came home completely changed, transformed into a helpful little boy with five mysterious friends that Yutaka had never heard of before. He had thought they were using him but after observing them (he was turning into a regular eavesdropper by now) he had to believe that there wasn't anything seedy about their desire to spend time with a younger kid. They all seemed to have problems of their own anyway. The two who were obviously twins had major issues with their parents, and from he could understand had been separated at birth. Junpei and Izumi, both sunny individuals from what Yutaka could see, had problems making friends and Takuya, who evidently was the ringleader of them all, and who treated Tomoki more like a brother than he ever had, had a marked tendency to get himself into dangerous situations.

Weeks went by, and Yutaka kept waiting for his brother to throw a tantrum, to demand something unreasonable, to use his age and immaturity to get his own way, and he grew frustrated when it didn't happen. There was simply no way that such a metamorphosis could occur over the course of a day and Yutaka kept waiting for the other shoe to fall.

But it didn't. And when Yutaka stopped looking for reasons to find the whole change purely suspicious and accepted that the new and improved Tomoki was here to stay, he realised that he could very well like the person he was growing into.

"Hey Yutaka, will you play chess with me? Kouichi's been teaching me and he says I need to practice," Tomoki mumbled, eyes downcast, obviously expecting Yutaka to refuse. He reached out and took off the huge hat, ruffling his hair despite his brothers protestations.

"Course I will," he replied fondly, surprising himself that he actually meant it, and smiling back at Tomoki as a grin split his face in half. It was then that Yutaka realised something, that although he had always taken things for granted, Tomoki had learnt something that Yutaka was only now beginning to grasp.

Brothers are priceless.


End file.
